Bedchamber crisis

The Bedchamber crisis occurred on 7 May 1839 after Whig politician Lord Melbourne declared his intention to resign as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom after a government bill passed by a very narrow margin of only five votes in the House of Commons. The distraught young Queen Victoria, whose ardent political sympathies were with the Whigs, first asked the Duke of Wellington, a former Tory prime minister, to form a new government, but he politely declined, she then reluctantly invited Conservative leader Robert Peel to form a government. Peel realised that such a government would hold a minority in the House of Commons and would be structurally weak, possibly damaging his future political career.[1]

Peel accepted the invitation on the condition that Victoria dismiss some of her Ladies of the Bedchamber,[2]
many of whom were wives or relatives of leading Whig politicians, she refused the request, considering her ladies as close friends, not as objects of political bargaining. Peel, therefore, refused to become Prime Minister and Melbourne was eventually persuaded[by whom?] to stay on as Prime Minister.

After Victoria's marriage to Prince Albert in 1840, she relied less on her ladies as companions. In the 1841 general election, Peel's Conservatives gained a majority and Victoria appointed Peel as the new Prime Minister, a change of government for which Melbourne had meanwhile been preparing her. Accepting "the wise advice of the democratically minded Prince Albert",[3] Victoria replaced three of her Whig ladies with Conservatives.

At the time of the crisis, the inexperienced Victoria was not yet twenty years old and had been on the throne less than two years, she was dismayed at the thought of losing her first, and so far only, Prime Minister, the avuncular Melbourne, who had been a wise and kindly father-figure to her in the first years of her reign—her own father, the Duke of Kent, had died when she was an infant. Victoria also mistakenly assumed that Peel wanted to replace all of her ladies—her closest friends and companions at court—when in fact Peel wished to replace only six of the twenty-five ladies, but failed to make his intentions clear to Victoria.[3]

Late in life, Victoria regretted her youthful intransigence, writing to her private secretary, Arthur Bigge, 1st Baron Stamfordham: "I was very young then, and perhaps I should act differently if it was all to be done again."[3]

The funeral of Victoria, Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, Empress of India, occurred on 2 February 1901. It was one of the largest gatherings of European royalty to take place. In 1897, Victoria had written instructions for her funeral, to be military as befitting a soldier's daughter and the head of the army, white instead of black. On 25 January, Edward VII, the Kaiser and Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught, helped lift her body into the coffin, she was dressed in her wedding veil. An array of mementos commemorating her extended family and servants were laid in the coffin with her, at her request, by her doctor and dressers. One of Albert's dressing gowns was placed by her side, with a plaster cast of his hand, while a lock of John Brown's hair, along with a picture of him, was placed in her left hand concealed from the view of the family by a positioned bunch of flowers. Items of jewellery placed on Victoria included the wedding ring of John Brown's mother, given to her by Brown in 1883.

Her funeral was held on Saturday, 2 February, in St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, after two days of lying-in-state, she was interred beside Prince Albert in Frogmore Mausoleum at Windsor Great Park. The state funeral of Queen Victoria took place in February 1901. Victoria left strict instructions regarding the service and associated ceremonies and instituted a number of changes, several of which set a precedent for state funerals that have taken place since. First, she disliked the preponderance of funereal black. Second, she expressed a desire to be buried as "a soldier's daughter"; the procession, became much more a military procession, with the peers, privy counsellors and judiciary no longer taking part en masse. Her pallbearers were equerries rather than dukes, for the first time, a gun carriage was employed to convey the monarch's coffin. Third, Victoria requested; this meant that the only event in London on this occasion was a gun carriage procession from one railway station to another: Victoria having died at Osborne House on the Isle of Wight, her body was conveyed by boat and train to Waterloo Station by gun carriage to Paddington Station and by train to Windsor for the funeral service itself.

Princess Louise, Duchess of Argyll, was the sixth child and fourth daughter of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. In her public life, she was a strong proponent of the arts and higher education and of the feminist cause, her early life was spent moving among the various royal residences in the company of her family. When her father, the prince consort, died on 14 December 1861, the court went into a long period of mourning, to which with time Louise became unsympathetic. Louise was an able sculptor and artist, several of her sculptures remain today, she was a supporter of the feminist movement, corresponding with Josephine Butler, visiting Elizabeth Garrett. Before her marriage, from 1866 to 1871, Louise served as an unofficial secretary to her mother, the Queen; the question of Louise's marriage was discussed in the late 1860s. Suitors from the royal houses of Prussia and Denmark were suggested, but Victoria did not want her to marry a foreign prince, therefore suggested a high-ranking member of the British aristocracy.

Despite opposition from members of the royal family, Louise fell in love with John, Marquess of Lorne, the heir of the Duke of Argyll. Victoria consented to the marriage, which took place on 21 March 1871. Despite a happy beginning, the two drifted apart because of their childlessness and the queen's constraints on their activities. In 1878, Lorne was appointed Governor General of Canada, a post he held 1878–1884. Louise was viceregal consort, her names were used to name many features in Canada. Following Victoria's death in 1901, Louise entered the social circle established by her brother, the new king, Edward VII. Louise's marriage survived thanks to long periods of separation. After the end of the First World War in 1918, at the age of 70, she began to retire from public life, undertaking few public duties outside Kensington Palace, where she died at the age of 91. Louise was born on 18 March 1848 at London, she was the fourth daughter and sixth child of the reigning British monarch, Queen Victoria, her husband, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.

Her birth coincided with revolutions which swept across Europe, prompting the queen to remark that Louise would turn out to be "something peculiar". The queen's labour with Louise was the first to be aided with chloroform. Albert and Victoria chose the names Louisa Caroline Alberta, she was baptized on 13 May 1848 in Buckingham Palace's private chapel by John Bird Sumner, the Archbishop of Canterbury. Though she was christened Louisa at the service, she was invariably known as Louise throughout her life, her godparents were Duke Gustav of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. During the ceremony, the Duchess of Gloucester, one of the few children of King George III, still alive, forgot where she was, got up in the middle of the service and knelt at the queen's feet, much to the queen's horror. Like her siblings, Louise was brought up with the strict programme of education devised by her father, Prince Albert, his friend and confidant, Baron Stockmar; the young children were taught practical tasks, such as cooking, household tasks and carpentry.

From her early years, Louise was a talented and intelligent child, her artistic talents were recognised. On his visit to Osborne House in 1863, Hallam Tennyson, the son of the poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson, remarked that Louise could "draw beautifully"; because of her royal rank, an artistic career was not considered. However, the queen first allowed her to attend art school under the tutelage of the sculptor Mary Thornycroft, allowed her to study at the National Art Training School, now The Royal College of Art. South Kensington. Louise became an able dancer, Victoria wrote, after a dance, that Louise "danced the sword dance with more verve and accuracy than any of her sisters", her wit and intelligence made her a favourite with her father, with her inquisitive nature earning her the nickname "Little Miss Why" from other members of the royal family. Louise's father, Prince Albert, died at Windsor on 14 December 1861; the queen was devastated, ordered her household to move from Windsor to Osborne House on the Isle of Wight.

The atmosphere of the royal court became gloomy and morbid in the wake of the prince's death, entertainments became dry and dull. Louise became dissatisfied with her mother's prolonged mourning. For her seventeenth birthday in 1865, Louise requested the ballroom to be opened for a debutante dance, the like of which had not been performed since Prince Albert's death, her request was refused, her boredom with the mundane routine of travelling between the different royal residences at set times irritated her mother, who considered Louise to be indiscreet and argumentative. The queen comforted herself by rigidly continuing with Prince Albert's plans for their children. Princess Alice was married to Prince Louis, the future Grand Duke of Hesse, at Osborne on 1 June 1862. In 1863, the Prince of Wales, married Princess Alexandra of Denmark; the queen made it a tradition that the eldest unmarried daughter would become her unofficial secretary, a position which Louise filled in 1866, despite the queen's concern that she was indiscreet.

Louise, proved to be good at the job: Victoria wrote shortly afterwards: "She is a clever de

After her husband's death, she became known as Empress Frederick. The empress dowager settled in Kronberg im Taunus, where she built Friedrichshof, a castle, named in honour of her late husband. Isolated after the weddings of her younger daughters, Victoria died of breast cancer a few months after her mother in 1901; the correspondence between Victoria and her parents has been preserved completely: 3,777 letters from Queen Victoria to her eldest daughter, about 4,000 letters from the empress to her mother are preserved and catalogued. These give a detailed insight into the life of the Prussian court between 1858 and 1900. Princess Victoria was born on 21 November 1840 at London, she was her husband, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. When she was born, the doctor exclaimed sadly: "Oh Madame, it's a girl!" And the Queen replied: "Never mind, next time it will be a prince!". She was baptised in the Throne Room of Buckingham Palace on 10 February 1841 by the Archbishop of Canterbury, William Howley.

Shortly after the birth of Victoria, Prince Albert wrote a memoir detailing the tasks and duties of all those involved with the royal children. Another 48-page document, written a year and a half by the Baron Stockmar, intimate of the royal couple, details the educational principles which were to be used with the little princes; the royal couple, had only a vague idea of the proper educational development of a child. Queen Victoria, for example, believed that the fact that her baby sucked on bracelets was a sign of deficient education. According to Hannah Pakula, biographer of the future German empress, the first two governesses of the princess were therefore well chosen. Experienced in dealing with children, Lady Lyttelton directed the nursery through which passed all royal children after Victoria's second year; the diplomatic young woman managed to soften the unrealistic demands of the royal couple. Sarah Anne Hildyard, the children's second governess, was a competent teacher who developed a close relationship with her students.

Precocious and intelligent, Victoria began to learn French at the age of 18 months, she began to study German when aged four. She learned Greek and Latin. From the age of six, her curriculum included lessons of arithmetic and history, her father tutored her in politics and philosophy, she studied science and literature. Her school days, interrupted by three hours of recreation, began at 8:20 and finished at 18:00. Unlike her brother, whose educational program was more severe, Victoria was an excellent student, always hungry for knowledge. However, she showed an obstinate character. Queen Victoria and her husband wanted to remove their children from court life as much as possible, so they acquired Osborne House on the Isle of Wight. Near the main building, Albert built for his children a Swiss-inspired cottage with a small kitchen and a carpentry workshop. In this building, the royal children learned practical life. Prince Albert was involved in the education of their offspring, he followed the progress of his children and gave some of their lessons himself, as well as spending time playing with them.

Victoria is described as having "idolised" her father and having inherited his li

Hackpen White Horse is a chalkhill figure of a white horse on Hackpen Hill, located below The Ridgeway on the edge of the Marlborough Downs, two miles south east of Broad Hinton, England. It is one of nine white horse hill figures located in Wiltshire, it is known as the Broad Hinton White Horse due to its near location to Broad Hinton. Cut by local parish clerk Henry Eatwell in 1838 to commemorate the coronation of Queen Victoria, the horse is 90' square feet and is said to be best viewed from B4041 road; the horse is scoured and maintained. The origin of the horse is uncertain, is sometimes said to be the only 19th century white horse to have little of its history known, it is regarded that the horse was cut in 1838 by Henry Eatwell, a parish clerk of Broad Hinton, assisted by a local pub landlord. It is said to commemorate the coronation of Queen Victoria; the horse is cut of chalk, is 90' square feet, making it the only square-dimension horse in England, faces WNW. Although the hill it resides on, Hackpen Hill, is high, it is a gentle slope when compared to the hills of most other Wiltshire horses.

Because the hill is gentle, the horse is banked up and raised from the surrounding grass to make it more visible. The head was elevated to help with the foreshortening; the best view of the horse is said to be from the nearby B4041 road, whilst the A361 road near Broad Hinton provides a clear view. At the top of the hill is a car park where the Ridgeway crosses the B4041 road, a footpath stretches from there down to the horse, making the horse accessible to the public. Many real horses roam the field, it has been suggested that the stones for Stonehenge and Avebury may have come from a field of sarsen stones just to the south east of its location. The expression "as different as chalk and cheese" is sometimes believed to refer to the land divided by Hackpen Hill; the hill forms the boundary between the high chalk downs to the south of it and the clay cattle country to the north, where cheese is a product of the milk from the cattle, so the two areas "are as different as chalk and cheese." Hackpen White Horse was not the only hillside shape cut to commemorate Queen Victoria.

The horse ties "neck-and-neck" with Broad Town White Horse as the closest white horse to Swindon. The horse is scoured. In either May or June 2000, John Wain cleaned it single-handedly, he flew David Brewer over the area to photograph the village of Broad Hinton and the white horse for brewers's book Images of a Wiltshire Downland Village: Broad Hinton and Uffcott. Wain cleaned it annually until Bevan Pope cleaned the horse single-handedly on 23 September 2004. Wain cleaned the horse again with the help of a group of friends on 1 February 2011 and 4 February 2012. On both occasions, they illuminated the newly cleaned horse. Although to illuminate a white horse has been sporadic tradition for other horses in Wiltshire, those occasions marked the first times it had been done for Hackpen White Horse. In March 2009, the horse was transformed into a "red horse" for the Comic Relief charity's Red Nose Day campaign; the White Horse pub, located half a mile away in Winterbourne Bassett, features an illustration resembling the horse as its logo.

There was speculation during his life that Leopold suffered mildly from epilepsy, like his grand-nephew Prince John. The Prince's intellectual abilities were evident as a boy. In 1872, Prince Leopold entered Christ Church, where he studied a variety of subjects and became president of the Oxford University Chess Club. On coming of age in 1874, he had been made a privy councillor and granted an annuity of £15,000, he left the university with an honorary doctorate in civil law in 1876 travelled in Europe. In 1880, he toured Canada and the United States with his sister, Princess Louise, whose husband John Campbell, Marquess of Lorne, was Governor General of Canada, he was a prominent patron of chess, the London 1883 chess tournament was held under his patronage. Incapable of pursuing a military career because of his haemophilia and the need to avoid minor injuries, Leopold instead became a patron of the arts and literature and served as an unofficial secretary to his mother. "Leopold was the favourite son, through him her relations with the Government of the day were kept up."

Leopold was fond of Mary Baring, daughter of Lord Ashburton, though she was fond of him too, at 19, she felt she was too young to marry. After rejection from these women, Victoria stepped in to bar what she saw as unsuitable possibilities. Insisting that the children of British monarchs should marry into other reigning Protestant families, Victoria suggested a meeting with Princess Helena Friederike, the daughter of Georg Viktor, reigning Prince of Waldeck-Pyrmont, one of whose daughters had married King William III of the Netherlands. On 27 April 1882, Leopold and Helena were married, at St George's Chapel at Windsor Castle, his income was raised by parliament to £25,000. Leopold and Helena enjoyed a happy (although bri

Accordingly, the House of Commons assumed its current title. Under the Parliament Act 1911, the Lords' power to reject legislation was reduced to a delaying power; the Government is responsible to the House of Commons and the Prime Minister stays in office only as long as she or he retains the confidence of a majority of the Commons. Although it does not formally elect the prime minister, the position of the parties in the House of Commons is of overriding importance. By convention, the prime minister is answerable to, must maintain the support of, the House of Commons. Thus, whenever the office of prime minister falls vacant, the Sovereign appoints the person who has the support of the House, or, most to command the support of the House—normally the leader of the largest party in the Commons, while the leader of the second-largest party becomes the Leader of the Opposition. Since 1963, by convention, the prime minister is always a member of the House of Commons, rather than the House of Lords.

The Commons may indicate its lack of support for the Government by rejecting a motion of confidence or by passing a motion of no confidence. Confidence and no confidence motions are phrased explicitly, for instance: "That this House has no confidence in Her Majesty's Government." Many other motions were until recent decades considered confidence issues though not explicitly phrased as such: in particular, important bills that were part of the Government's agenda. The annual Budget is still considered a matter of confidence; when a Government has lost the confidence of the House of Commons, the prime minister is obliged either to resign, making way for another MP who can command confidence, or to request the monarch to dissolve Parliament, thereby precipitating a general election. Parliament sits for a maximum term of five years. Subject to that limit, the prime minister could choose the timing of the dissolution of parliament, with the permission of the Monarch. However, since the Fixed-Term Parliaments Act 2011, terms are now a fixed five years, an early general election is brought about by a two-thirds majority in favour of a motion for a dissolution, or by a vote of no confidence, not followed within fourteen days by a vote of confidence.

By this second mechanism, the UK's government can change its political composition without an intervening general election. Only four of the eight last Prime Ministers have attained office as the immediate result of a general election; the latter four were Jim Callaghan, John Major, Gordon Brown and the current Prime Minister Theresa May. In such circumstances there may not have been an internal party leadership election, as the new leader may be chosen by acclaim, having no electoral rival. A prime minister will resign after party defeat at an election if unable to lead a coalition, or obtain a confidence and supply arrangement, she or he may resign after a motion of no confidence or for health reasons. In such cases, the premiership goes to, it has become the practice to write the constitution of major UK political parties to provide a set way in which to appoint a new leader. Until 1965, the Conservative Party had no fixed mechanism for this, it fell to the Queen to appoint Harold Macmillan as the new prime minister, after taking the consensus of cabinet ministers.

By convention, ministers are members of the House of House of Lords. A handful have been appointed who were outside Parliament, but in most cases they entered Parliament in a by-election or by receiving a peerage. Exceptions include Peter Mandelson, appointed Secretary of State for Business and Regulatory Reform in October 2008 before his peerage. Since 1902, all prime ministers have been members of the Commons; the new session of Parliament was delayed to await the outcome of his by-election, which happened

The Diamond Jubilee Medal was instituted in 1897 by Royal Warrant as a British decoration. The medal was awarded to members of the Royal Family and the court and dignitaries present at the celebrations of Queen Victoria's diamond jubilee and to selected soldiers and sailors who formed the jubilee parade in London; the Medal followed the Golden Jubilee Medal, issued ten years both in terms of design and award criteria, with those qualifying for both medals receiving a ribbon clasp in lieu of a second medal. The medal was awarded to those involved in the official celebrations of Queen Victoria's diamond jubilee, including members of the Royal Family, Royal Household and government officials, as well as Envoys, Foreign Ambassadors and Colonial Prime Ministers. Military recipients included selected officers and soldiers of the Royal Navy and Army, the Indian and colonial contingents, that participated in jubilee activities, including the London procession in which the Queen took part. Three types of medal were awarded: Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee Medal.

Awarded in gold to members of the Royal Family, silver to officers and those of similar status, bronze to selected other ranks who took part in the jubilee parade. A special diamond shaped medal for mayors and provosts, presented in gold to lord mayors and lord provosts and silver to mayors and provosts from across the United Kingdom. A Police Diamond Jubilee Medal of a different design was awarded to those on duty during the jubilee celebrations. Please see separate article. Other members of the Commonwealth struck their own versions of the medal, albeit not sanctioned for wear; the Government of Ceylon in particular is notable for the medals they struck in 14-carat gold and silver, awarded to senior members of government and local officials. The Diamond Jubilee Medal followed the design of Golden Jubilee Medal, it measures 30 millimetres in diameter. On the obverse Queen Victoria is depicted crowned and wearing a veil which falls over the back of the head and neck, with the text VICTORIA D. G.

REGINA ET IMPERATRIX F. D.. The reverse bears the words IN COMMEMORATION OF THE 60TH YEAR OF THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA · 20 JUNE 1897 within a garland of roses and thistles; the medal was designed by Clemens Emptmayer, with the portrait of Queen Victoria based on a design by Sir Joseph Edgar Boehm. The ribbon is garter blue with wide white stripes towards each edge. Holders of the 1887 medal who qualified were awarded a bar inscribed'1897' and surmounted by a crown, to be attached to the ribbon of the existing medal; the medal for mayors and provosts is a lozenge, 40 by 48 millimetres, bearing a trefoil pattern, with a circular centre that depicts the portrait of the older Queen on the obverse, with the young Queen on the reverse. The ribbon follows that of the standard medal; the medal of Admiral of the Fleet, Earl David Beatty in the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich on collections.rmg.co.uk The medal of Richard Seddon, premier of New Zealand in the Museum of New Zealand on collections.tepapa.govt.nz

The Whigs were a political faction and then a political party in the parliaments of England, Scotland, Great Britain, Ireland and the United Kingdom. Between the 1680s and 1850s, they contested power with their rivals, the Tories. The Whigs' origin lay in constitutional monarchism and opposition to …

The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom is the head of government of the United Kingdom. The Prime Minister directs both the executive and the legislature, and together with their Cabinet (consisting of all the most senior ministers, most of whom are government …

Late in the 17th century Treasury Ministers began to attend the Commons regularly. They were given a reserved place, called the Treasury Bench, to the Speaker's right where the Prime Minister and senior Cabinet members sit today.

The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the upper house, the House of Lords, it meets in the Palace of Westminster. Officially, the full name of the house is the Honourable the Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland in …

William Pitt the Younger addressing the Commons on the outbreak of the war with France (1793); painting by Anton Hickel.

The old Chamber of the House of Commons built by Sir Charles Barry was destroyed by German bombs during the Second World War. The essential features of Barry's design were preserved when the Chamber was rebuilt.

Another picture of the old House of Commons chamber. Note the dark veneer on the wood, which was purposely made much brighter in the new chamber.

Victoria was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death. On 1 May 1876, she adopted the additional title of Empress of India. — Victoria was the daughter of Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and …

Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, was an Anglo-Irish soldier and Tory statesman who was one of the leading military and political figures of 19th-century Britain, serving twice as Prime Minister. His victory against Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo in …

The Conservative Party, officially the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom. The governing party since 2010, it is the largest in the House of Commons, with 314 Members of Parliament, and also has 249 members of the House of Lords, 18 members of …

Sir Robert Peel, 2nd Baronet, was a British statesman and Conservative Party politician who served twice as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and twice as Home Secretary. He is regarded as the father of modern British …

Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha was the husband of Queen Victoria. — He was born in the Saxon duchy of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, to a family connected to many of Europe's ruling monarchs. At the age of 20, he married his …

Albert (left) with his elder brother Ernest and mother Louise, shortly before her exile from court

The coronation of Queen Victoria took place on Thursday 28 June 1838, just over a year after she succeeded to the throne of the United Kingdom at the age of 18. She died at the age of 81. The procession to and from the ceremony at Westminster Abbey was watched by unprecedentedly huge crowds, as the …

The wedding dress of Queen Victoria was worn by Victoria, Queen of the United Kingdom, at her wedding to Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha on 10 February 1840. She selected a white dress, which was considered an unusual choice at a time when colours were more usual, made from heavy silk satin …

Queen Victoria and Prince Albert on their return from the marriage service at St James's Palace, London, 10 February 1840. Engraved by S Reynolds after F Lock.

The Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria was celebrated on 20 June 1887 on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of Queen Victoria's accession on 20 June 1837. It was celebrated with a banquet to which 50 European kings and princes were invited. — History — On 20 June 1887 the Queen had breakfast …

The Clock Tower is a free-standing clock tower in the centre of Brighton, part of the English city of Brighton and Hove. Built in 1888 in commemoration of Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee, the distinctive structure included innovative structural features …

The Clock Tower, lit up for the festive season.

Close-up view of the Jubilee Clock Tower with time ball in down descent

The Diamond Jubilee Medal was instituted in 1897 by Royal Warrant as a British decoration. The medal was awarded to members of the Royal Family and the court, guests and dignitaries present at the celebrations of Queen Victoria's diamond jubilee and to selected soldiers and sailors who formed the …

Emperor/Empress of India was a title used by British monarchs from 1 May 1876 to 22 June 1948. — History — After the nominal Mughal Emperor was deposed at the conclusion of the Indian Rebellion of 1857 (10 May …

New Crowns for Old, the cartoon's caption references a scene in Aladdin where lamps are exchanged. The Prime Minister, Benjamin Disraeli, is offering Queen Victoria an imperial crown in exchange for an earl's coronet. She made him the Earl of Beaconsfield at this time.

In the history of the United Kingdom, the Victorian era was the period of Queen Victoria's reign, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. The era followed the Georgian period and preceded the Edwardian period, and its later half overlaps with the first part of the Belle Époque era of …

The funeral of Victoria, Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, Empress of India, occurred on 2 February 1901. It was one of the largest gatherings of European royalty ever to take place. — Description — In 1897, Victoria had written instructions for her funeral, which was to …

Queen Victoria's funeral procession

Westminster Abbey. Special Service To be held on the occasion of the Funeral of Her Late Majesty Queen Victoria, Saturday, February 2nd, 1901, At Two o'clock. Order of Service

The Frogmore Estate or Gardens comprise 33 acres of private gardens within the Home Park - Private, adjoining Windsor Castle, in the English county of Berkshire. It is the location of Frogmore House, a royal retreat, and Frogmore Cottage. The name derives from the preponderance of …

Victoria, Princess Royal was German Empress and Queen of Prussia by marriage to German Emperor Frederick III. She was the eldest child of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, and was …

Victoria with her father Prince Albert and his greyhound Eos. Portrait by John Lucas, 1841.

Edward VII was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and Emperor of India from 22 January 1901 until his death in 1910. — The eldest son of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Edward was related to royalty …

Princess Alice of the United Kingdom, Grand Duchess of Hesse and by Rhine, was the third child and second daughter of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. Alice was the first of Queen Victoria's nine children to die, and one of three to be outlived …

Alfred reigned as Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha from 1893 to 1900. He was the second son and fourth child of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. He was known as the Duke of Edinburgh from 1866 until he …

Princess Helena of the United Kingdom was the third daughter and fifth child of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. — Helena was educated by private tutors chosen by her father and his close friend and adviser, Baron Stockmar. Her childhood was …

Princess Louise, Duchess of Argyll, was the sixth child and fourth daughter of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. In her public life, she was a strong proponent of the arts and higher education and of the feminist cause. Her early life was …

Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn was the seventh child and third son of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. He served as the Governor General of Canada, the tenth since Canadian Confederation and the only British prince to …

This is a list of the 42 grandchildren of the British Queen Victoria and her husband Prince Albert, each of whom was therefore either a sibling or a first cousin to each of the others. It also lists Victoria and Albert's 9 …

From left to right: Alice, Arthur, the Prince Consort, the Prince of Wales (later Edward VII), Leopold (in front of the Prince of Wales), Louise, the Queen with Beatrice, Alfred, the Princess Royal and Helena (1857).

Sir John Ponsonby Conroy, 1st Baronet, KCH was a British army officer who served as comptroller to the Duchess of Kent and her young daughter, Princess Victoria, the future Queen of the United Kingdom. — Conroy was born in Wales to Anglo-Irish parents. In 1817, after …

John Doyle, known by the pen name H. B. was a political cartoonist, caricaturist, painter and lithographer. — He was the eldest son of a Dublin silk mercer, and came from a Roman Catholic family which in the 17th century had been granted extensive estates …

Hackpen White Horse is a chalk hill figure of a white horse on Hackpen Hill, located below The Ridgeway on the edge of the Marlborough Downs, two miles south east of Broad Hinton, Wiltshire, England. It is one of nine white horse hill figures located in Wiltshire. It is also known as the Broad …

Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany, was the eighth child and youngest son of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. Leopold was later created Duke of Albany, Earl of Clarence, and Baron Arklow. He had haemophilia, which led to his death at the …

Carl Friedrich Wilhelm Emich, Prince of Leiningen, KG, was the third Prince of Leiningen and maternal half-brother of Queen Victoria. Leiningen served as a Bavarian lieutenant general, before he briefly played an important role in German politics as the first …

Royal visits to Manchester and the surrounding areas in the nineteenth century signify important achievements in the city's history and offer an insight into the development of the area during this period. Moreover, Manchester's response to such visits, the preparations and public displays of …

Johanna Clara Louise Lehzen, better known as Baroness Louise Lehzen, was the governess, and later adviser and companion, to Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom. — Born to a Lutheran pastor in Hanover, in 1819 Lehzen entered the household of the Duchess of Kent and …

Painted by Carl Friedrich Koepke for Queen Victoria, c. 1842

Victoria's marriage to Prince Albert led to disagreements and Lehzen's eventual dismissal.

William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne, was a British Whig statesman who served as Home Secretary and Prime Minister. He is best known for being prime minister in Queen Victoria's early years and her coaching in the ways of …

Lord Melbourne (1844, age 65); detail from a painting by John Partridge.

Hansard is the traditional name of the transcripts of Parliamentary Debates in Britain and many Commonwealth countries. It is named after Thomas Curson Hansard, a London printer and publisher, who was the first official printer to the parliament at Westminster. — Origins — Though the …

Hansard title page from 1832

Sample of Hansard from the Canadian House of Commons, 1895. Shows sample of several members speaking as described in the text.